£50m revamp for airport terminal

Even more high street names have been attracted to the airport.

Manchester airport’s flagship Terminal One has been given a £50 million makeover, based on the advice of psychologists.

Passengers jetting off from Thursday this week were the first to sample the new-look terminal, which now has one of the UK’s largest airside shopping and catering facilities.

The scheme redesigned flow inside the terminal and was created to make the passenger’s journey easier following an in-depth study into their state of mind as they travelled through the airport.

Psychologists were used to identify stress points in the car parks, at the check-in and at security, with their findings used to help draw up the plans.

Now passengers can look forward to:

A new airside retail and catering on the departures level in Terminal 1 which gives the airport a retail area which is larger than the pedestrian zones of King Street and Market Street in Manchester city centre, respectively.

A range of new shops, including Mango, Starbucks and Monsoon.

A spa for passengers’ use.

A £14 million, 14-lane security area, with an average queuing time of only eight minutes.

Andrew Cornish, managing director of Manchester Airport, said that the designers had to go back to the drawing board several times during the planning process as the liquid ban and last year’s terrorist attack at Glasgow airport created new challenges.

He said: “The future looks bright. We’ve seen retail growth outstrip the high street over recent years. Many of our passengers have enjoyed what’s on offer previously but we wanted to significantly invest in it. Now we will wait to see whether those changes have an effect.”

A new Emirates lounge, boarding area and range of gates will be added to the terminal in preparation for Airbus A380 superjumbo flights, which are expected to begin operating from Manchester within the next two years.

The terminal handles over 11 million passengers a year and is used by many of the world’s major scheduled airlines.

It is also the base for jet2.com, Monarch Airlines and Thomas Cook Airlines.